Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition

Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition PDF Author: Aaron Sherraden
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1839984716
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
According to Vālmīki’s Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa (early centuries CE), Śambūka was practicing severe acts of austerity to enter heaven. In engaging in these acts as a Śūdra, Śambūka was in violation of class- and caste-based societal norms prescribed exclusively by the ruling and religious elite. Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyaṇa epic, is dispatched to kill Śambūka, whose transgression is said to be the cause of a young Brahmin’s death. The gods rejoice upon the Śūdra’s death and restore the life of the Brahmin. Subsequent Rāmāyaṇa poets almost instantly recognized this incident as a blemish on Rāma’s character and they began problematizing this earliest version of the story. They adjusted and updated the story to suit the expectations of their audiences. The works surveyed in this study include numerous works originating in Hindu, Jain, Dalit and non-Brahmin communities while spanning the period from Śambūka’s first appearance in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa through to the present day. The book follows the Śambūka episode chronologically across its entire history—approximately two millennia—to illuminate the social, religious, legal, and artistic connections that span the entire range of the Rāmāyaṇa’s influence and its place throughout various phases of Indian history and social revolution.

Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition

Śambūka and the Rāmāyaṇa Tradition PDF Author: Aaron Sherraden
Publisher: Anthem Press
ISBN: 1839984716
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 187

Get Book

Book Description
According to Vālmīki’s Sanskrit Rāmāyaṇa (early centuries CE), Śambūka was practicing severe acts of austerity to enter heaven. In engaging in these acts as a Śūdra, Śambūka was in violation of class- and caste-based societal norms prescribed exclusively by the ruling and religious elite. Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyaṇa epic, is dispatched to kill Śambūka, whose transgression is said to be the cause of a young Brahmin’s death. The gods rejoice upon the Śūdra’s death and restore the life of the Brahmin. Subsequent Rāmāyaṇa poets almost instantly recognized this incident as a blemish on Rāma’s character and they began problematizing this earliest version of the story. They adjusted and updated the story to suit the expectations of their audiences. The works surveyed in this study include numerous works originating in Hindu, Jain, Dalit and non-Brahmin communities while spanning the period from Śambūka’s first appearance in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa through to the present day. The book follows the Śambūka episode chronologically across its entire history—approximately two millennia—to illuminate the social, religious, legal, and artistic connections that span the entire range of the Rāmāyaṇa’s influence and its place throughout various phases of Indian history and social revolution.

Performing the Ramayana Tradition

Performing the Ramayana Tradition PDF Author: Paula Richman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197552536
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
The Ramayana, one of the two pre-eminent Hindu epics, has played a foundational role in many aspects of India's arts and social norms. For centuries, people learned this narrative by watching, listening, and participating in enactments of it. Although the Ramayana's first extant telling in Sanskrit dates back to ancient times, the story has continued to be retold and rethought through the centuries in many of India's regional languages, such as Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali. The narrative has provided the basis for enactments of its episodes in recitation, musical renditions, dance, and avant-garde performances. This volume introduces non-specialists to the Ramayana's major themes and complexities, as well as to the highly nuanced terms in Indian languages used to represent theater and performance. Two introductions orient readers to the history of Ramayana texts by Tulsidas, Valmiki, Kamban, Sankaradeva, and others, as well as to the dramaturgy and aesthetics of their enactments. The contributed essays provide context-specific analyses of diverse Ramayana performance traditions and the narratives from which they draw. The essays are clustered around the shared themes of the politics of caste and gender; the representation of the anti-hero; contemporary re-interpretations of traditional narratives; and the presence of Ramayana discourse in daily life.

Ramayana

Ramayana PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art, Indic
Languages : en
Pages : 78

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Book Description


The Ramayana Revisited

The Ramayana Revisited PDF Author: Mandakranta Bose
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019516833X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
14 leading 'Ramayana' scholars examine the epic in its myriad contexts throughout South and Southeast Asia. They explore the role the narrative plays in societies as varied as India Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. The essays also expand the understanding of the 'text' to include non-verbal renditions of the epic.

The Ramayana Tradition in Southeast Asia

The Ramayana Tradition in Southeast Asia PDF Author: S. Singaravelu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hindu civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description


Questioning Ramayanas

Questioning Ramayanas PDF Author: Paula Richman
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520220744
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
A wide-ranging examination of the many different versions of India's greatest epic, the Ramayana, focusing on versions that subvert the dominant readings of the work.

The Ramayana Tradition in Asia

The Ramayana Tradition in Asia PDF Author: V. Raghavan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 727

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Book Description


The Ramayana Tradition in Asia

The Ramayana Tradition in Asia PDF Author: Venkatarama Raghavan
Publisher: New Delhi : Sahitya Akademi
ISBN:
Category : Civilization, Hindu
Languages : en
Pages : 752

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Book Description


Rāmāyaṇa Traditions in Eastern India

Rāmāyaṇa Traditions in Eastern India PDF Author: William L. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Description: Through the structure of the popular Ramayanas composed in Assamese, Bengali and Oriya based on the version of Valmiki, the poets are eclectic in their choice of material and freely select episodes from the Puranas, Sanskrit devotional Ramayanas, Sakta works and the oral tradition, as long as these are not in direct conflict with Valmiki. Unlike vernacular Ramayanas in some other regions of India, here poets do not allow the narrative to be overwhelmed by theological or sectarian concerns. Many apocryphal episodes common to all three literatures do not seem to be found outside Eastern India.

RAMAYANA The Poisonous Tree

RAMAYANA The Poisonous Tree PDF Author: Ranganayakamma
Publisher: Sweet Home Publications
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
As the title indicates, this book is a critical study of an Indian epic, ëThe Ramayanaí. It proceeds in the same order as that of Sanskrit original consisting of : Bala kanda, Ayodhya kanda, Aranya kanda, Kishkindha kanda, Sundara kanda, Yuddha kanda and Uttara kanda. While Valmikiís Ramayana is composed of about 24,000 slokas (verses), ëRamayana the Poisonous Treeí consists of 16 stories, long and short, accompanied by 11 ëlinksí (narratives that ëlinkí the stories) and 504 foot-notes that show evidence from the Sanskrit original in support of the critique. Besides the main components of the text, this book has a long ëPrefaceí discussing the social essence of the epic in the context of history of evolution of human society from the ancient times to the modern times. The book also offers a critical review of the works of ësome earlier critics of Ramayanaí. The authoress describes Ramayana as a Poisonous Tree because it defends the autocratic rule of the kings against the people, their imperial expansion by invading other weak kingdoms, exploitation of the poor by the rich, oppression of lower castes by upper castes, aggression of the civilized non-tribal communities against primitive tribal communities, male chauvinism against women, superstitious beliefs against the rational thinking, fathersí domination over sons, elder brothersí superiority over younger brothers and so on. She substantiated her arguments by providing hundreds of foot notes from the Sanskrit original. She characterizes the culture of Ramayana as predominantly ëfeudalí in nature with an admixture of remnants of primitive ëtribalí culture. The book, it is hoped, will be of interest to both academic and non-academic circles. It is relevant to the students, teachers and researchers who are connected with such disciplines as South Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature, Comparative Religions, Indology, Literary Criticism and so on. It is also relevant to the social and political activists who would like to disseminate ëprogressiveí ideas among the people who are subjected to various forms of inequality: Class, Caste, Gender, Race, Ethnicity. Ranganayakamma (born 1939) is a writer of novels, stories and essays in Telugu. She has published about 60 books.